SEEMS you can hardly walk down a Derbyshire country lane these days without falling over a new film or TV production of Jane Eyre.

There's great excitement over at Fox House and Froggatt with the filming of Cary Fukunaga's version starring Mia Wasikowska (she was Alice in Wonderland) and Michael Fassbender as Jane and Mr Rochester.

Seems like only yesterday (2006) that Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens were filming it in these parts and then there was Zeffirelli version with Charlotte Gainsbourg in 1994.

This will be the 23rd film or TV version of the novel since 1914.

Judi Dench will pop up as Mr Rochester's housekeeper.

When the actors were first seen in costume one subscriber to the Sheffield Forum website wondered whether they were filming Lark Rise to Grindleford!

HOLLYWOOD stars will be in Derbyshire again as parts of a new adaptation of classic novel Jane Eyre are filmed in the county.

Dame Judi Dench and Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell are among the cast for the new movie.

The locations for filming have yet to be confirmed, but the cast and crew will be staying at a working museum near Matlock while shooting takes place.

Red House Stables, in Darley Dale, will provide accommodation for both horses and humans while filming is under way for the period drama, based on the 19th-century novel by Charlotte Bronte.

The building houses a large collection of original horse-drawn vehicles and equipment and, as a working museum, regularly takes them out on the road.

The size of the collection and working order of the equipment has led to the place developing a growing sideline in providing props and horses for film-makers.

Caroline Dale-Leech, owner of Red House Stables, said it was not the first time the company had worked with a film crew.

She said: "We have been operating as a museum since 1946 and have helped with plenty of films before.

"But we are always happy to accommodate them. Normally they use our horses and carriages in the films but this time they have their own so we will just provide the horses and crew with somewhere to stay.

"We are catering for up to 16 people and 16 horses and they will be staying over the next few weeks, but numbers will vary as filming changes."

She said the stables had been involved with film companies since the 1960s.

Over the years, Caroline said they had helped in the making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the BBC TV version of Pride and Prejudice, films based on DH Lawrence's novels Sons and Lovers and Women in Love and TV show Peak Practice.

She said: "We also do all sorts of promotions and advertising. We have built up a good reputation and it is a unique selling point.

"On the back of our work with films, especially after the BBC's Pride and Prejudice series, we had people from as far as Japan come and visit on tours especially to see us."

The film, which started shooting last month, is being produced by Ruby Films and funded by BBC Films and Focus Features.

It is being directed by Cary Fukunaga, who recently won the Dramatic Director award at the 2009 Sundance film festival for his previous film Sin Nombre.

It will star Mia Wasikowska, recently seen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender, who has worked with Quentin Tarantino in Inglourious Basterds, as the brooding Mr Rochester.

Britain: Guide explores 'Jane Eyre' country as new film prepares to open

By Susan James Special to the Los Angeles Times

March 1, 2011, 5:45 a.m.

Marking the March 11 opening of the new film adaptation of "Jane Eyre" from the novel by Charlotte Bronte, VisitBritain has created a free Jane Eyre/Bronte Country destination pocket guide.

"Jane Eyre," which was published in 1847, tells the story of a young orphan who suffers injustices, grows into a young woman of strong moral character and eventually weds her true love. It has been made into numerous movies and TV miniseries, including a 1910 silent film and a 1996 big-screen version starring Anna Paquin, William Hurt, Joan Plowright and Geraldine Chaplin.

The VisitBritain guide, which contains suggested itineraries and tips on following in the footsteps of the Bronte sisters (Emily wrote "Wuthering Heights") and their famous characters, is available at selected Barnes & Noble bookstores or by mail through travelinfo@visitbritain.org. Or it can be downloaded online from VisitBritain’s special website.

THE latest big screen version of Jane Eyre is set to have a dramatic impact on one of the area’s most historic houses.

But it is the garden rather than Haddon Hall itself that is being transformed thanks to location fees paid by makers of the film, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, which is due for release in September.

Haddon, acknowledged as England’s most perfect surviving medieval house, is being gradually restored under the care of its present incumbent, Lord Edward Manners. But the famous terraced gardens have received little more than basic maintenance over the last century – until now.

All visitor income is ploughed back into the upkeep of the property, near Bakewell. But Haddon’s latest appearance as Thornfield Hall has brought a welcome boost to the coffers, enabling work to begin on a three-year replanting project.

Acclaimed garden designer Arne Maynard is in charge. He believes a garden should draw out the essence of its setting.

In Haddon’s case, that includes restoring elaborate Rennaissance gardens which have lost much of their character.

“When I first saw these gardens, scattered with their floribunda tea roses and park-like borders, it struck me that all references to their past had been lost,” says Arne. “They had a municipal feel, entirely out of place in the Peak District.”

His solution is to create a modern interpretation, echoing the Elizabethan hall but at the same time seating it firmly in the local landscape.

Work has begun on the Fountain Terrace. More than half the profusion of roses and delphiniums have been removed, along with anachronistic colours. In their place are herbaceous borders in shades of pink, blue and heathery mauve.

A flowery mead, studded with wild orchids, aquilegia and other native flora, resonates with the open countryside beyond. In the centre of the garden the corners of the fountain pond have been bracketed by cubes of copper beech, a trademark of Arne’s work.

Next year the focus will switch to the upper Bowling Terrace, where a knot garden will be restored with traditional plants used for eating, medicinal purposes or even dying cloth.

And in 2013 the lower and upper terraces will be replanted with meadow species and fruit trees.

Lord Edward admits he is no gardener – “Don’t ask me anything about flowers!” – but he loves gardens and is pleased with the results to date.

“It’s so exciting: the beginning of a whole new era,” he says. “It had got to the point where it really needed some change, to be revived a bit. Hopefully this will make the difference.”

The public can see the work in progress this year. There will also be a chance to see some of the grounds for the first time during garden open days each Friday until the end of September.

“For example it means they can now walk down to the river and over Dorothy Vernon’s Bridge,” says Lord Edward.

“It’s a chance to explore parts of the garden that aren’t usually open. People have been very appreciative.”

THE Peak District is bracing itself for a tourism windfall following next week’s release of Jane Eyre.

The box office heavyweight – starring Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska, Jamie Bell and Dame Judi Dench – has been filmed on location around Haddon Hall and is expected to bring sightseers flocking to the area.

Last year around 36 million tourists visited the Peak, bringing in more than £1.5 billion. And as the region gears up to cash in on next year’s Olympics, the role of big screen exposure is not underestimated.

Recent hits which have brought film fans flocking to the area include Pride & Prejudice, The Duchess, The Other Boleyn Girl and Robin Hood.

Medieval Haddon was the obvious choice when director Cary Fukunaga was looking for a suitable Thornfield Hall.

Charlotte Brontë visited Hathersage in 1845 and is thought to have based much of her novel on landmarks she encountered in the area.

Haddon is no stranger to the role – it was cast as Thornfield by Franco Zeffirelli in 1996 and ten years later in the BBC version.

This time more than 100 cast and crew transformed the building, with scenes being filmed in the minstrels’ gallery, the state bedroom, the kitchen and even the private apartments.

Head steward Jo Walker landed the role of ensuring that the historic building and its contents were safe, from the time the crew arrived at 6am each day until they left, often 14 hours later: “We watched them like hawks!” she says,

“We’ve done quite a lot of films, so we’re like a well-oiled machine and we know what’s allowed and what’s not.”

Jo also found herself cast as impromptu props assistant: “I made some tatty curtains to go on the windows of the Long Gallery, which was being made to look like an attic.

“They filled it with junk and cobwebs and screen dust – we were sweeping it up for months – but I’m told the scene ended up on the cutting room floor!”

And she was party to some of the film’s secrets, such as the hundreds of tiny fabric blossoms that were fastened to bare trees in the garden to make it look like spring.

“It was very convincing. In fact when we opened the hall for the new season they were still in place, so we used it as an April fool’s joke.”

The cast and crew were billeted at various locations during the four weeks of filming, with many of the stars staying at the nearby Peacock at Rowsley.

“They’re all lovely but we especially loved having Dame Judi; she’s a national treasure,” says Jo.

“She’s a tiny little lady but with such a sense of humour: very focused on what she’s doing but with a twinkle in her eye. She put everyone else at ease.”

Haddon is only one of the Peak District locations to be featured.

Director Fukunaga has been quoted as saying: “I’m a stickler for raw authenticity, so I’ve spent a lot of time rereading the book and trying to feel out what Charlotte Brontë was feeling when she was writing it.”

The result is said to be darker than previous interpretations. But The Times reports that it is ‘a handsome and satisfying version that makes the landscape as much a star as the excellent leads’.

Other locations include the ruins of Wingfield Manor near Alfreton, which double as Thornfield after it is ravaged by fire, and White Edge Lodge – a former gamekeeper’s cottage, now a National Trust holiday home on the Longshaw Estate – which serves as The Moor House.

And the wild romantic landscape that first inspired Charlotte Brontë is allowed to speak for itself.

Stanage Edge, one of the area’s most dramatic natural landmarks, has been chosen to capture Jane Eyre’s profound sense of isolation. The area around her school is filmed near Edale and the softer countryside where Rochester rides around Thornfield is represented by the lush water meadows below Haddon Hall.

All these sites are likely to sought out by visitors and so-called ‘film tourists’ who are expected to flock to the area over the coming months.

Tourist board marketing head David Thornton says: “Film tourism generates a lot of interest in the Peak District and Derbyshire.”